During his career, Parker has won five Emmy awards, four Tony awards and a Grammy for the long running cartoon and his hit Broadway musical The Book of Mormon. He has also written and starred in several movies, including Orgazmo, BASEketball, and Team America: World Police.

Known for his sophomoric, juvenile, outrageous, lewd and occasionally obscene comedy, Parker's twisted sense of humor was forged, in part, by the Cheyenne public school system.

Parker was born just west of Denver in Conifer, Colorado. His grandmother lived in Cheyenne and, while he was nearing the end of second grade, Parker and his family briefly moved to Wyoming.

The traumatic experience had a profound effect on Parker. The 1998 South Park episode "Damien" was, reportedly, written about his short stay in the Capital City.

The episode depicts a boy who moves to a new elementary school only three weeks before summer break. Unable to make friends, the boy becomes angry and isolated and plots revenge on his new classmates.

In the third grade, the shy and introverted Parker discovered the legendary television series Monty Python and became fascinated with comedy and animation.

His family later moved back to the west Denver suburbs, where he graduated from high school and eventually met longtime collaborator Matt Stone at the University of Colorado.

"Damien" wasn't the only episode of South Park inspired by Parker's childhood. Several of the show's main characters are named after his family members, including his dad Randy, his mother Sharon and his sister Shelly.